Hafiz Babaly faces criminal charges of smuggling

Baku/14.12.23/Turan: On December 14, investigative journalist Hafiz Babaly was charged at the Baku City police headquarters under Article 206.3.2 (smuggling committed by prior agreement by a group of persons) of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan. Lawyer Rasul Jafarov told Turan about this.

According to him, Babaly does not accept the accusation and associates it with his journalistic activities.

On Thursday afternoon, the Khatai district court will consider a petition to take a preventive measure against Babaly. According to Article 206.3.2, he faces imprisonment from 5 to 8 years.

It is worth recalling that on December 13 officers of the Baku city main police department detained Babaly, editor of the economic department of the Turan Agency.

After arrest, his apartment in Sumgayit was searched, a computer, a mobile phone, and documents were seized. A representative of the Interior Ministry said that Babaly was detained as part of a criminal case against employees of "Abzas Media".

Remind that Babaly is known for his journalistic investigations of corruption facts, which were published in the online edition of "Abzas Media".

Since November 20, "Abzas Media" director Ulvi Hasanli, his deputy Mohammad Kekalov, editor-in-chief Sevinj Vagifgizy and reporter Nargiz Absalamova have been detained. They are charged with "smuggling foreign currency."

This refers to the "illegal" receipt of money from foreign donors (grants) for journalistic investigations of corruption among Azerbaijani government officials. –06B-